Purest Form
by florapaw
Summary: Stand and face me, my love, and scatter the grace in your eyes.
1. Chapter 1

_you may be wondering why i'm choosing to celebrate pride month with wlw ships in watership down and my answer is that i can do what i want you're not my mother. happy pride month yall!_

* * *

_**And her light**__**  
**__**stretches over salt sea**__**  
**__**equally and flowerdeep fields.**_

_**And the beautiful dew is poured out**__**  
**__**and roses bloom and frail**__**  
**__**chervil and flowering sweetclover.**_

_\- Saphho_

* * *

Hyzenthlay smells like wildflowers. Clover could stay awake in the burrow late into the night with her nose pressed against Hyzenthlay's wiry fur and count the beats of her heart and the rise of her chest. Hyzenthlay was like a gift directly from Frith. Clover could barely believe it sometimes.

Hyzenthlay was warm teasing and slow stories in the late evening, her paws wet with dew or rain and her fur ruffled from lazy mornings pressed against Clover's side. Or even countless other things, like napping in between the daisies or reciting love poems or silent side-by-side silflaying or telling Clover how much she loves her.

"Do you ever wish we weren't here?" Hyzenthlay asks one day, her head tilted upwards towards the sky.

Clover's eyes narrow at the grass she had been nibbling on, unsure of Hyzenthlay's meaning and almost too afraid to ask.

"Where would we go?" Clover questions cautiously, still not understanding Hyzenthlay.

"Anywhere. We could live like hlessi, going wherever we please, doing whatever we want."

Clover moves to Hyzenthlay's side, their fur brushing. "Oh Hyzenthlay, I don't know. It seems like a lot of work to fend for ourselves with just the two of us-"

"But imagine it Clove," She says wistfully. "Digging our own burrows, discovering a warren that we could build for just the two of us."

Clover shakes her head and nudges Hyzenthlay with her nose playfully. "I suppose it could be good," She says softly, her eyes closing, her nose pressing against Hyzenthlay's chest. "Though I haven't a clue why we'd go."

"Oh Clover," Hyzenthlay replies in such a tender tone it makes her heart beat faster and faster against her chest. "We'd go to be together."

There was a pause – a long one while Clover thought over Hyzenthlay's words. "Together?"

"Yes, together."

Hyzenthlay's big eyes were deep and affectionate in ways Clover could hardly comprehend, and Clover didn't think it was possible to love someone anymore than she did right now.

"Clover, I'd walk the whole world if it meant I'd be with you."


	2. Chapter 2

**_This is what I know of life:_**_**  
**_**_Love fiercely, even recklessly;_**_**  
**_**_Laugh loudly, even raucously;_**_**  
**_**_Risk everything, at least once;_**_**  
**_**_Live openly, without abandon;_**_**  
**_**_Build trust, be honest._**

\- Julie R. Enszer

* * *

Vilthuril has a habit of grinding her teeth while she sleeps. It's not so bad, and it doesn't bother Thethuthinnang that much. It was nice in Efrafa, because Vilthuril usually did it right next to her ear, so it drowned out the cries of the does. But at Watership Down it wasn't needed.

But it's nice either way.

Vilthuril is a little ditzy, and a little too gentle and naïve for the world. Thethuthinnang is a little older than her, but not by much, and it's a puzzle why (or even how for that matter) she's managed to stay so childish all this time.

She did everything with so much life and energy it was almost tiring for Thethuthinnang to watch. She sits in the sun and stares lazily into the sky and nobody, not even Thethuthinnang, know what she's thinking.

"Vilthuril?" Thethuthinnang asks one day. Vilthuril looks to her mate with the softest, sweetest expression on her face.

"Yes?" She replies, eyes twinkling.

"You're always thinking," Thethuthinnang says slowly. "What do you think about?"

Vilthuril looks genuinely confused, and for a moment Thethuthinnang is sure that she isn't going to answer when she does.

"I'm thinking of you."

Thethuthinnang blinks once, twice, and then her words click. "Me? Why are you thinking of me?"

Again, in the simplest way possible, Vilthuril responds.

"Because you're my favourite thing to think about!"

Thethuthinnang lowers her head to the ground and eats and eats until she's sure she'll be able to form coherent sentences again. "Well, yes – you're my favourite thing to think about too. But don't you think of other things? You're a very good thinker; I'm certain you think of amazing things."

Now it was Vilthuril's turn to fluster. In all the time Thethuthinnang had known Vilthuril (and all the time she had known her on an intimate level), she had never been able to say something to make the other react in such a way.

"Oh? You think that I think of amazing things?"

Vilthuril was visibly pleased with her words, and Thethuthinnang was more than happy to shower the doe in the praises she deserved.

"Of course I do. You're amazing, so you'd have to think of amazing things."

"I love you Thethuthinnang!" Vilthuril manages to squeak out. Thethuthinnang responds by simply pressing her forehead against Vilthuril's side.

Thethuthinnang's response goes without saying, and the two does relax and spend the evening in each other's company like they always have; Thethuthinnang grounded, and Vilthuril with her head high in the clouds.


	3. Chapter 3

**_For too long you have gathered flowers,_**_**  
**_**_And leaned against the bamboos,_**_**  
**_**_Your green sleeves growing cold,_**_**  
**_**_In your deserted valley:_**_**  
**_**_I can visualize you all alone,_**_**  
**_**_A girl harboring her cryptic thoughts._**

_\- __Wu Tsao_

* * *

"I still can't believe that you almost killed me in Darkhaven."

Spartina frowns. Blackberry really just won't let her forget that blunder, will she? Blackberry seems content to bring it up again despite the deadpan look she receives. She playfully bats Spartina with her paws and laughs.

"Oh, come on. Humour me."

Blackberry knows that Spartina's fuse is short on a good day, but she stills prods her with the same playful banter that she always uses.

"I should have let Granite kill you earlier," Spartina grumbles. Blackberry laughs once more.

"Come on," She tries again. "You hurt my feelings, saying stuff like that."

"Good," Spartina shoots back, but there's the beginnings of a smile forming on her face. "That was my intention."

Blackberry gasps loudly for good measure and stumbles backwards. "How your words wound me."

But Spartina is back on track, no longer ready to play along with Blackberry's words, her paws digging rapidly at the new run they were supposed to be making. Blackberry couldn't help but note that her digging skills were poor for a doe. She probably wasn't used to digging. Snaking in beside her, Blackberry drops the teasing and becomes as serious (well, not quite as serious) as Spartina.

"Here, you're digging from the bottom up and that why it isn't as neat as the other runs," Blackberry moves Spartina's paws from the dirt and places her own in place of them. "See? If you dig from the top it's a lot neater."

When she turns back to Spartina, she can see that her face is scrunched up in a scowl. Blackberry was very good at reading others, and Spartina, for all her bitter anger that she spits everywhere, is pretty easy to read.

"Don't worry," She soothes. "You just need practice. It's fine, really."

Spartina takes in a breath, holds it, and then nosily lets it out. Spartina broods a lot, and she might not be good at digging, but she's good at that.

"Practice is for fighting," She mutters angrily to herself, but loud enough that Blackberry picks it up. "Not for digging."

Blackberry doesn't respond, but they start to dig in silence once again. "But I am serious Spartina. You don't have to be good at everything."

"It would feel a lot nicer if I were," She argues under her breath once again. Blackberry pauses and grins.

"If it's any consolation, you're great at being my mate!"

Spartina digs faster in response, and Blackberry smiles. She had finally gotten to her. And really, sometimes Spartina could be so cute it was unbelievable_. _


	4. Chapter 4

_(trans strawberry trans strawberry trans strawberry trans stra-)_

**_I break wild roses, scatter them over her._**_**  
**_**_The thorns between us sting like love's pain._**_**  
**_**_Her flesh, bitter and salt to my tongue,_**_**  
**_**_I taste with endless kisses and taste again._**

_\- __Elsa Gidlow_

* * *

Nildro-hain was the embodiment of perfection in Strawberry's eyes. She was soft and sweet, nothing but supportive and kind when Strawberry insisted with such conviction that she was a _doe_ and not a _buck_. It took a long time for Cowslip's followers to understand that simple, simple fact, but Nildro-hain understood straight away, dropping her sugary-sweet demeanour to defend her mate at any questions or comments that she knew Strawberry didn't appreciate.

Nildro-hain snored. It wasn't loud snoring, more like a gentle, audible sigh with each breath she took. Others had found it annoying, and that was how Nildro-hain ended up sharing Strawberry's run in the first place. Strawberry was more than happy to share the run with the doe who she had admired for such a long time. And after she was gone, the runs felt empty without it. Without Nildro-hain, Strawberry felt more alone than ever.

Watership Down was fine enough, really. But sometimes she'd catch a glance of an orange butterfly or a particularly chatty bird and the instinctive, _oh, I should go tell Nildro-hain about this _caught up with her and she'd feel like crying all over again. Clover tried to comfort her, telling her that one day it wouldn't be as bad. Strawberry never wanted it to feel better. If it felt better, that means she was _forgetting_.

Nildro-hain was good with secrets. She kept Strawberry's secrets with such ease, and Strawberry was certain she kept countless other secrets. She was the confident of the warren, and Strawberry wondered over her immense strength, how she could possibly deal with such a weight all on her own.

"Nildro-hain," Strawberry says, in the quiet voice she reserved for secrets. Nildro-hain moves closer to listen.

"Yes Strawberry?"

"I think I'm in love with you."

"Oh!" Nildro-hain sits up, voice raising in volume to express her surprise. "Oh, do I have to keep that one a secret too?"

Strawberry thinks for a moment, and then decides to shake her head. "That one doesn't have to be a secret."

"Wonderful, because I think I'd like to tell everyone."

Before she could move, Strawberry stopped her. "Wait – do you mind? You know, that I love you."

Nildro-hain flicks her ears. "Of course I don't! I love you too, you thick-headed fur-brain!"

Nildro-hain's death hurt, but nothing hurt more than the other rabbits in that stupid warren forgetting she existed almost instantly.

Watership Down is lovely, and all the other rabbits, even though none of them knew of Nildro-hain's existence until Strawberry told them, respected the memory of the doe they hadn't met. Watership Down is lovely, and the days are always sunny and warm and Nildro-hain would have _loved_ it here.

It hurt to think that, but that was okay. Strawberry would deal with it so long as she could still remember her lovely mate until the Black Rabbit came for her.


End file.
